Disco Elysium's impeccable writing goes beyond its rich narrative and thought-provoking dialogue; it also serves a valuable gameplay function. It adapts to your choices, morphing and weaving the story around you. After your first playthrough, it creates the illusion that your build was the right decision. The truth is that there is no wrong way to play Disco Elysium, as there are always alternate paths you could take to reach the same objective.

All skills are valid, but some skills provide more utility or an exciting flavor. These are the top 10 best skills you should consider on your run:

Information gathered from the game’s wiki.

1. Inland Empire

The necktie is alive

Inland Empire untethers the imagination, opening the world to the surreal and supernatural. It offers valuable hunches via gut reactions. It also breathes life into the inanimate, granting you visions of a sentient necktie, a hanged corpse, and other objects.

Too much of this, and you start to lose your grip on the real world. Your sanity tiptoes on the threshold of concrete and abstract, awake yet always dreaming. Paranoia creeps in as unseen mystical forces seek to bring out the end times. The cosmic energies are alive and dangerous, and they’re coming for you.

2. Logic

Raw intellectual prowess

Logic is the foundation of intelligence. It is your processing power for analyzing the facts of the case as well as detecting contradictions. When it starts working, expect reliable results.

Sometimes, it works a bit too much. It grasps for strands to investigate even if it leads to a dead end. Hubris is its downfall as it believes itself infallible, unaware of the effect that sweet words and well-told lies have on it.

3. Volition

Volition policing the other skills

Volition is the straight man keeping all your other skills in check. It serves as your moral compass when your other skills urge you to do something rash and irrational. It's a hand on your shoulder during the darkest moments of the game urging you to keep going. It also serves as one of your health bars, morale, to represent your will to proceed with the case.

Volition is selfish and only cares about you and you alone. It doesn't want to see you in pain, so much so that it's willing to hide the truth. Unfortunately, it can also hijack the conversation entirely away from your other skills, censoring their risky ideas and making you a predictable, boring cop.
 

4. Reaction Speed

Reaction Speed remembers to asks questions before she walks away

Reaction Speed is the first to sense danger, whether physical or verbal. It pairs well with an intelligence-based build as it immediately pieces all the little clues together. It also grants you a quick-wit so you can fire off a nasty comeback the instant an insult comes your way.

It is personified with a jumpy and anxious personality which can make your body move before your other skills even have a chance to assess the situation. This could lead to awkward moments due to misreading the danger. At least you're safe.
 

5. Rhetoric 

Persuading a locked container to open

Discourse, debate, nitpick and argue for the hell of it with this skill. Rhetoric turns ordinary conversations into heated battles of language and semantics. Catch peculiar words right off the mouth of the speaker and toss them back. Persuade someone to cooperate with you—even open locked doors with your silver tongue. And most importantly, preach about your chosen ideology to recruit more into your cause. 

Except you don't actually persuade anyone because you’re too busy manufacturing dissent. 

Detectives are not supposed to dismantle beliefs and draw politically divided lines. Also, just because a point is well-argued and logically sound doesn’t make it right. Finally, Rhetoric can lose itself so far in absurd theoretical situations that the original conversation disappears, impeding your case. And it’s a massive communist.

6. Empathy

Finding out what's the deal with Cuno

Empathy is the core of your emotional intelligence. It allows you to notice the subtle reactions to understand their feelings better. It shows you care about their sentiments (even if you don't), guiding you through the conversation while avoiding the triggers which could cause them to turn you away.

At the end of the day, you're still trying to solve a murder, and empathizing without moderation could come at the price of your objectivity. 

7. Composure

 A cop always keeps his poker face

Keep your cool and read body language with this skill. If Drama is used to catch and tell lies verbally, Composure is the same but through body language. It builds an impenetrable façade showing that nothing can faze you, despite all that inner turmoil. It also remarks on your fashion sense as well as others.

Unlike the other three skill groups, most skills in motorics don't provide adverse effects when dumping your points into it. 

8. Physical Instrument

Earning Cuno's respect

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is by hitting it hard enough. Physical Instrument represents your strength and how eager you are to use it. Punch a kid straight in the face, spin kick a racist twice your size in muscle mass, shoulder bash doors into submission. If it exists, you can physically dominate it.

When left unchecked, it becomes a tour de force of unapologetic toxic masculinity. It refers to itself as Coach Physical Instrument as it shoves unsolicited advice about your behavior. So stop crying, stop acting like a namby-pamby, and flex your muscles more.

9. Shivers 

Shivers tuning in to the city

Shivers in real life is closely attributed to street smarts, an unparalleled understanding of the city attained only through living there. However, it is much more than that in the game. It is a sixth sense where you can tune in to Revachol's memories of the past, present, and future. It is a supra-natural skill; however, the information and hints you learn from it aren't abstract֫—though it is indeed written that way— it is real and grounded.

An excess in Shivers leads to its dialogue becoming stranger than it already usually is. As a result, its comments are oftentimes vague, overwritten, and enigmatic, leaving you puzzled in its wake—a unique skill nonetheless, perfect for players who don't mind another mystery to solve.

10. Perception

Notice the subtle details

Perception is the quintessential skill for gathering clues and noticing the details. It rules your senses: sight, smell, taste, and hearing; you'll see the difference when playing with high Perception by how many and how often thought orbs appear. It also affects the game by helping you spot secret paths and items that were previously hidden. Perception feeds you vital information that you always use in tandem with your other skills.

A high stat in Perception completely overwhelms you with information and thought bubbles. It is up to you to sift between which observations are pertinent to the investigation.

Consider these skills but don't put too much thought into mix-maxing your builds. Even though there are downsides to dumping points into particular skills, don't let this discourage you from doing so if you love the skill and want to see more of it. Embrace the game's weird and extreme choices because it often leads to hilarious and interesting results. 

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